If, like many Americans, you find yourself behind when it comes to having enough saved for a financially secure retirement, one potential way to increase your retirement savings is by taking advantage of catch-up contributions. The author of today’s article cautions “Don’t fall into the trap of underestimating how much these extra contributions can potentially benefit your upcoming retirement” –…
“If you follow rich people, you’ll notice that they never actually sell any assets – they instead use them to generate more and more cash flow. We can – and should – do the same,” argues the author of today’s article – who proceeds to highlight five dividend paying (and dividend growing) stocks that have meaningful (above 5%) yields today…
Despite an awful lot of prognostications, nobody knows for sure when the next bear market will be. What is known, however, is that the five major stock bear markets of the past 45 years wiped out 40% of the stock market’s value on average – and, as today’s article notes, “in the two most recent bear markets, you would have…
A large chunk of people around the globe are not prepared for – and do not understand some of the key concepts related to – retirement. This is one of the conclusions that can be drawn from the Aegon Retirement Readiness Survey – and a financial literacy test given as part of it, which many participants failed. For more –…
The author of today’s article outlines how retirees – or any bond investor – “can construct a portfolio of bonds whose total return will almost certainly be higher than the average of those individual bonds’ yields.” How does one accomplish this? By bond laddering – and while you are probably familiar with the concept of bond laddering, you may not…
Retirees have been told that, especially given the increasing number of years spent in retirement, they need to maintain a sizable position in equities. It turns out, however, that maintaining a healthy equity allocation in retirement may not be as beneficial for retirees as believed: The author of today’s article analyzed a number of different retirement funding scenarios and came…
How can you get control of your spending without having to devote precious time to tracking every expense? Today’s article outlines one spending system that can be employed to accomplish this: bucket budgeting. This is the system the author’s husband uses, and she notes that it “allows him to prefund his expenses, keep his spending in check and avoid having…
Whether it’s for family, lifestyle or financial reasons, relocation is a part of retirement for many Americans. However, the author of today’s article cautions that, “Whatever the reason, retirees appear to be making two big mistakes with their homes. They seem to vastly misunderstand the home as an investment decision, and they don’t consider the financing options available to them…
Americans on the whole are underprepared for retirement. This is especially true for women over 50, with today’s article noting that “they fall way behind men when it comes to retirement preparedness.” While there are multiples reasons for this reality (including an acceleration in the divorce rate for this group), what can women do to prevent against the prospect of…
Small business owners (SBOs) are not preparing sufficiently for retirement – and while they are not unlike the larger population of workers in that regard, SBOs typically face even greater challenges. As such, today’s article outlines a number of ways in which SBOs can go about preparing intelligently for retirement. What does the author identify as being “an ideal average…